by Mark Carey, CEO, DelCreo, Inc.

Do you want the budget, resources, and management support for your risk program to be a success?

Then, be strategic.

In my more than 10 years in the field of risk, I have observed that strategic planning does not seem to be an area where many Risk Professionals excel. However, in a recent conversation I had with a Fortune 50 CFO, the key question on the table was, "How should my company align and integrate our risk management activities into the strategic planning processes used by our businesses?"

I have conducted many interviews with Risk Professionals to ask them what challenges they face, and I consistently hear the following two answers:

  1. "I am always struggling to get adequate budget, people, and tools necessary to do my job."

  2. "It is difficult to get the attention of our executive management team until something bad happens."

Sound familiar? If so, rest assured, you are not alone.

Effective strategic planning, especially the process that you have to go through to develop a strategic plan, will go a long way toward helping you address these challenges. The plan itself is not as important as the process, the thinking, and the garnering of management support.

Your strategic planning should accomplish the following:

  • FOCUS: Which risks specifically will your risk program focus critical resources on managing? What risk management capabilities (processes, investments, resources, and related activities) will be required? How will they be coordinated across the enterprise?
  • VALUE: How should your risk program measure the results and demonstrate the value of risk management processes, investments, resources, and related activities?
  • OBJECTIVES: What are the goals of your risk program? How will your risk program benefit your organization and its key stakeholders?

The benefits to your risk program when going through a strategic planning process and developing a well thought out plan are many, but here are several that my clients have benefited from:

  • The information gathering portion of strategic planning provides an excellent opportunity to interview and receive input from executives that you may not often interact with. This will give you exposure with those executives while allowing these executives to participate in the development of your risk program and "buy in" to the ultimate outputs of your strategic plan because they've had a stake in it.
  • It forces you to rationalize your current and future activities, investments, hiring plans, etc.
  • Strategic planning enforces professionalism, rigor, and discipline around the budgeting process.
  • Strategic planning provides a vehicle for you to communicate your vision for the risk program to your staff, team, partners, management, and other key stakeholders.

In my experience, Risk Professionals that have taken the time to go through the process have had much more success getting their budgets approved and head count requests supported; and they are better able to articulate the need, value, and return on investment of their risk program to their executive team.

Is there really a Privacy Paradox?

There has been much said on the topic of privacy - how to keep it, how to get it back, and how to lose it. There seems to be an irony in this concept of privacy, we want to possess it but do we really have that much control….?

Find out by reading Rebecca Herold's, DelCreo's Vice President of Privacy Services, paper "The Privacy Paradox" by following the link below:
http://www.delcreo.com/delcreo/free/docs/The%20Privacy%20Paradox.PDF

Risk Strategies That Work on "Be Strategic"

Developing a strategic plan for your risk program can be formal or informal. Just make sure you consider all of the following areas. You want your strategic plan to create a business case and a roadmap for your risk program.

  • Establish context and scope. You need to set parameters for your risk program and for the planning process. What risks will be covered? What parts of the risk management process? Which business units? Which geographies?
  • Assess the current state. You must be able to clearly describe where your risk program currently stands. Where are you today? What is working now and what isn't with the way you currently manage risk? What has changed in your risk and business environment that warrants a change in your risk program? What are peer organizations doing?
  • Envision the future. You will need to articulate where you believe the risk program needs to be and why. Where do you need to be? What are your stakeholders' needs and expectations? What will your risk program look like and what will it be able to do? How will this benefit your organization? What are the consequences to your organization if you don't do these things?
  • State goals and initiatives. You will need to declare what your risk program is there to achieve and how it will get there. What are the objectives for your risk program? What are you trying to accomplish, change, or affect? What initiatives or projects will get you to those objectives? How much will they cost? What are the ongoing costs? What are the benefits?
  • Frame the implementation. Lay out a roadmap for implementation of your risk program. It doesn't need to be a detailed project plan (that can come later) but it has to demonstrate that you have thought things through. What sequence will the projects occur in? Which need to happen first? When will they begin and end? How will they rollout across your organization? Who will do them? What are the "quick wins"?
  • Measure performance. This is an area often missed by many risk programs. Demonstrate the value of your risk program. How will you and your stakeholders measure success? Where do you currently stand? Where do you need to be in 6 months, one year, or even five years in order to achieve your stated goals? How often and in what manner will you report results to your risk program's stakeholders?

Would you like additional help with developing a strategic plan for your risk program?

DelCreo has a FREE "Strategic Plan Workbook for Risk Programs" for you. This 25-page workbook serves as a step by step guide for a complete strategic plan for Risk Professionals and risk programs. To get your FREE workbook, please visit www.delcreo.com/free.html to sign up for the workbook and eZine.

DelCreo, Inc.
An Enterprise Risk Management Company
"Helping Risk Professionals Develop and Rollout Successful Risk Programs"

© 2003 DelCreo, Inc. All rights reserved.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.